Don't Judge an Assassin by Her Cover
by moonlightrurouni
Summary: Usually, he can easily determine where each person fit in society. Yet she…she was different. She was innocent and naive enough to be a common civilian, but no civilian would be able to have the steel she had in her eyes when she knocked him down. He could pass her off as simply a wanna-be. Someone who simply had an interest in their ways, but wasn't serious about it.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

The six-year-old boy dashes through the village streets, laughing as he dives behind a wagon. Clapping a hand to his mouth to silence his laughter, he watches in gleeful anticipation as a small girl clumsily barrels down the street.

"Tier-kun! Tier-kun?" she calls out, coming to an unsteady halt. Sneaking around the cart so that he's behind her, he grins in anticipation.

"Boo!"

The girl squeals in fright and surprise, turning around so quickly that she falls down. Laughing, he clutches his stomach. Looking down at her, he abruptly stops as he notices the tears that are threatening to spill from her eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make sad." He apologizes, crouching down to be eye level with her. She blinks in confusion, and he frowns uncertainly. "Oh right, you don't understand…"

Not knowing what else to do, he opens his arms and offers her a hug. Her eyes widen in wonder and the next thing he's aware of is that her arms are around his neck, crushing the air out of him. It's his turn to fall onto his back as she babbles something into his ear in her foreign language.

"Suki Tier-kun! Hontou ni, dai suki Tier-kun! Zutto!"

Giving her a confused look he decides to just repeat after her. She's probably saying thanks anyways. "Yeah yeah. Suki to you too."


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Altair watches as Al Mualim shakes hands with another man who had just arrived in the village. A young girl hovers behind him uncertainly, her hood's shadow hiding her face, but on occasion he sees a pair of inquisitive grey eyes meeting his own before vanishing again.

The 17-year-old huffs. He didn't like them, at all. They may be part of the eastern branch-located on an island off the coast he believes-but that didn't mean he trusted them. If anything, the golden hair, strange hat, and teasing, yet cunning eyes made him wary of the man he had only seen before on occasion.

"I'm glad your journey was safe Urahara, I trust this is your daughter you've told me so much about?" Al Mualim asks, giving her a once over with an amiable enough expression. However, knowing him, he's judging her potential as one of their own. Urahara laughs, and pats her in the shoulder.

"Ah, yes, this is Orihime-chan. Orihime, these are my dear friends. You know Al Mualim, and that is Altair. You've met him once before." he gestures at him, and Altair meet her curious gaze with a steely one of his own.

"Pleasure to meet you." she says softly, her accent almost making her greeting incomprehensible. Altair gives her a nod. Too timid. Too weak. He could immediately tell that she would only be a burden.

Al Mualim gives him an easy push forwards, and by the tiny cuff he gives to the back of his head, the younger assassin can tell he's unimpressed by his lack of warmth to his visitors. "I'm sure you remember our discussion from earlier, my son. Urahara and Orihime aren't only here on business. She is to learn our trade. And if fortune favors us, someday become your bride."

"Yes. I recall you telling me..." Altair notes Orihime bristling when she hears the note of contempt in his voice.

"I eagerly await the start of my tutelage here." she says in a defiant voice, earning a cocked eyebrow from her betrothed.

"We shall see." Altair nods at Urahara and Al Mualim before excusing himself.

He walks down the road toward the cliff, which aside from being an excellent place to fight someone by, (who doesn't like pushing people off cliffs and to their deaths?) but is also the quickest way down to the stables. Taking a running start he leaps of the cliff, hanging for a spilt second in the air before gravity takes hold and sends him plummeting to the ground. With a great 'fwshd' noise, he lands in the hay filled cart, and hops out easily. The moment he touches the ground, he starts jogging towards the stables.

"Altair!"

Hearing his name, the teenager turns around to see Orihime running after him, her cloak flapping in the wind, and her hands clamped firmly on her hood, keeping it on her head. She jumps over a rock, and he sees her cloak catch on the edge of the rock, and with a squeal, she tumbles forwards.

Easily, Altair steps forwards and catches her, her hood falling backwards, and her hair cascading down her back. "What are you..." he asks, only to forget the rest of his question when he sees her hair. It's the colour of the sunset, with streaks of gold laced in. Beautiful. But much too vibrant to be over looked, and much too eye catching to be forgotten, a little voice in the back of his mind notes.

"Doing? I, well, was wondering if I could go to the stables with you..." She bites her lip hesitantly. "I mean, I've never really been anywhere like this, back home we have barracks instead of villages, and Unohana-taicho-"

"Silence." Altair snaps, and Orihime jumps in surprise. "Are you sure you are cut out to be one of us? Because you've just divulged a decent amount of information to me about the eastern branch. Who knows? I could be an infiltrator." he says with a disapproving glare, mentally shaking himself out of his pervious shock. Orihime blinks quizzically, and for some reason it infuriates him even more.

"Well, I figured...if we are to potentially be married in the future, wouldn't it be easier if we trusted each other more from the beginning?"

Altair resists the sudden urge to smash his head against something hard. Grabbing her wrist, he yanks her forwards. Unsheathing his hidden blade, Altair pushes her up against the rock face, with the knife at her neck. "Dead." he hisses dangerously, his mouth an inch from her ear. "If I wanted you dead, you would be. Don't get cocky girl." Orihime makes no movement, and says nothing, when hot pain rips through his body, originating from his groin.

Catching him off guard, Altair grunts and falls backwards, landing with a thump on his back. Immediately after, the wind is knocked out of him and the familiar sound of a hidden blade being activated rings. Coughing slightly, he looks up to see Orihime's stoic face and a blade edge a hair's breadth from his eyes.

"Dead." she comments lightly, get eyes the only thing betraying her unease and mischief. Standing up she lifts him off the ground with a smile. "Have a little faith, ne, Altair-kun?" she says lightly, and grudgingly, he accepts her offered hand.

Grumbling to himself, he leads her to the stables at a light jog, that to his surprise, she matches without complaint. When they reach the stables, she surprises him again by squealing in surprise and joy when he introduces her to his mare. She coos lovingly at her, tickling her snout, occasionally glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. With a wry smile on his face, Altair shows her how to groom her, and the sunset haired girl hums an unfamiliar tune as she uses the brush across the mare's flank.

Altair watches her work, leaning against the side of the stall. Usually, he can easily determine where each person fit in society. Yet she…she was different. She was innocent and naive enough to be a common civilian, but no civilian would be able to have the steel she had in her eyes when she knocked him down. He could pass her off as simply a wanna-be. Someone who simply had an interest in their ways, but wasn't serious about it. But again, something was off about that label as well. If she wasn't serious about it, why would she be so defiant against his assumption that she was simply acting childish? He continued musing when with a jolt, he realize something he couldn't believe he missed.

"Orihime."

The girl in question jumps slightly, and turns to him with startled eyes, but doesn't say a word. "Yes Altair-kun?" she says, her arms wrapping around her waist self-consciously.

His eyebrows knit together as his eyes rake over her arms and body. Impossible. Too delicate. Too fragile. It's ludicrous to even think that it was a possibility. "How did you catch up to me so quickly? It should've taken you at least double the time it took me to reach the foot of the mountain, running down the paths."

She bites her lip and twirls a loose strand of hair around her finger. "Well, eto. I followed you." She says simply, offering no more and no less.

Altair shakes his head, "Impossible. I took the short cut. You couldn't have followed me."

Orihime laughs-albeit nervously. "Well, the dive off the cliff was unexpected, but I managed to get down. It was actually a lot of fun." She grins at him, and Altair has to clench his jaw to make sure it doesn't fall open in his astonishment.

Yes. She isn't like anything he's encountered before, nor did she fit in any one of the boxes he used to use to categorize everyone he encountered. She is a very, very curious enigma.

* * *

**Hello all. So as you may have noticed, the chapter has been edited accordingly. Thanks to Draco Olim for pointing out that Altair's dad passed away by now. Clearly I haven't played all the games ^^" **


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Altair sulks as he scans the crowd of his peers mingling together, eyes raking across each of their faces, looking for one specific person. He doesn't see her.

Sighing frustration, he leaps down into the fray, who immediately separate and form a ring around him. "I yield. Show yourself." he growls, eyes flicking from one point on the circle to the next.

There's a small giggle from behind him, and he turns to see her there-seeming to appear out of thin air. Her hood is down and her hair-that has been chopped short on his insistence-shines despite its unruliness. He can tell by the way her hands flutter at her sides that they want to cover his eyes teasingly, but choose not to.

"Well?"

Altair suppresses a smile-which takes much more will power than it should have. The enthusiasm in her voice is hard to miss, and easy to catch. "You did well." he says simply, and with a nod, dismisses her.

She bows respectively, and almost dances her through the crowd, and out of sight. The rest leave afterwards, save for one male who walks over and claps his hand on Altair's shoulder.

Grinning he lets out a low whistle, eyes flicking in the direction she had left. "Damn Altair, you are one lucky bastard."

Rolling his eyes, Altair cuffs him on the back of his head, and easily twists him into a headlock. "Shut up Abbas."

His best friend, and partner in crime laughs, and slips out of the headlock, dancing out of the way when Altair swings a punch at his gut. "I'm not even kidding. Getting betrothed to her? Brains, talent and body? She's an angel."

Altair scowls, despite the smile that is causing the corners of his lip to twitch. "You are a vulgar, vulgar boy." he says with a stony expression, "Besides, she doesn't have talent. She simply has luck."

Wagging a finger at him, Abbas walks back over and throws an arm over his shoulders, he steers both of them in the direction that she had went. "Man, boy no longer, my friend." he corrects, "And lucky? Tell me Altair, since when is picking up the skill of blending at that level within two days of training considered lucky? She's got talent, I'm telling you." he insists, as they walk down the pathways through the village.

"I've seen it before. One day they pick up something in an instant, the next, it takes forever to teach them a new skill." Altair insists, despite a tiny voice in the back of his mind agreeing with Abbas.

Scoffing, Abbas gives him a withering look out of the corner of his eye. "You just don't want to admit she's proved you wrong. She isn't soft."

"Please. That's-"

"Totally right."

"Ludicrous." Altair says with an eye roll.

"You're just in denial." Abbas sighs dramatically, as they make their way past the gates. Nodding at something high above their heads, Altair follows his friends gaze upwards to spy a white robed figure scaling the cliff.

He looks back at his friend, whose chestnut eyes watch the person with approval, awe, and underlying concern in his eyes. "Am I supposed to be particularly impressed? It's probably one of the scouts. Master sends them up into the cliffs to survey the area from above all the time."

"Genius, that's no scout."

Eyebrows knitting together, Altair's eyes flick back to the figure just as the wind blows their hood off. His chokes on his breath as he sees the golden hair flash in the sunlight, bright as a beacon. "What the hell is she doing?!" he chokes out, unexplained horror filling his body, as he sprints for the cliff, already searching for hand an footholds.

Abbas runs after him, and grabs his arm. "Woah, hold up."

"Orihime!" Altair bellows at the top of his lungs, ignoring him.

Abbas punches his arm indignantly. "Moron! What are you doing? You distracted her!" he hisses angrily, eyes glued to the girl above them.

Altair looks up to see that he's right, and her feet now frantically scrape at the rock face, desperately looking for a foot hold.

"T-tasukete!" he hears a faint scream from above as one of her feet kicks out and knocks several pebbles down to the ground.

"Hold on Orihime, and don't even think of letting go!" he shouts, scaling the rock, ignoring all the easy to reach hand holds, opting to jump upwards.

Sparing an instant to look up at his, (his? What did he mean 'his'? He never chose her!) damsel in distress to see her eyes squeezed shut and her knuckles white with tension. "Doushiyou? Doushiyou, Kurosaki-kun." she whimpers and a scream hisses past her teeth.

Altair pulls himself up to a ledge just over two arm lengths across from her and stretches his hand out to her. "Orihime, here. Take my hand." Her eyes fly open, and pure, undiluted terror swim in their grey depths. She shakes her head once frantically, and shuts her eyes tightly again.

"I-I can't." she stammers.

Irritation ripples through his body, but the assassin forces it down, knowing that it is neither the time, not place for it. "Come on Orihime, how hard could it be? You got yourself into this didn't you? You can get yourself out. I'm right here. I won't leave." he says in the most soothing tone he can manage. Though, thinking about it realistically, it's probably a clipped, neutral tone.

Her eyes open a tiny bit, and Altair breathes a sigh of relief when he sees the rational that has returned there. "Promise?" she whispers, and if he couldn't read lips, he wouldn't have heard get over the sound of the wind in his ears.

"I promise."

Orihime's right hand relaxes its iron grip on the rock by a fraction, then snaps outward to latch onto Altair's hand. The swiftness of the motion takes him off guard and he almost falls backwards.

"Good. There. See? Not that bad, right?" he says, after regaining his grip and balance. "Okay, now you have to let go with the other hand and push off to me."

"I have to let go?!"

"Orihime! Do you want to be an assassin or not?! If getting stuck climbing is going to stop you now, you will die in an instant if it happens on an assignment!" Altair shouts, and with a shrill shriek, Orihime jumps to Altair's ledge. He wraps a protective arm around her torso, and she clings to him like a small child. Her shoulders rise and fall in rapid succession, leaving Altair to simply wait again for her to calm down. When her shoulders still, then resume a calm breathing pattern, Altair deems the moment to right he moves his arm from around her. "Everything fine now?" he asks.

Orihime glances at him out of the corner of her eye. "Y-yeah."

"Can you climb?"

"I-I can."

Altair snorts at the lame excuse for a lie and with some skillful one handed juggling on his part, he manages to get her clinging onto his back. After taking a moment to make sure she's holding on tightly, he scales up the rock face and with one last heave, he reaches the top of the cliff.

Breathing heavily, he sets her down, before squatting down to give his leg muscles a breather. They feel unusually tense. "Imbecile! What were you thinking?!" Altair explodes, rising up to his full height, easily dwarfing the girl who cringes slightly at the venom in his tone. "You could have DIED. Don't you know that only scouts and experienced assassins ever scale these cliffs? There's a REASON for that! Honestly, do you have a DEATH WISH?!"

Altair feels small twinge of guilt when he shrinks back, as if his words had true weight and were crushing her. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, gomenasai Altair-kun," she says in a rush, her hands fisting in her loose pants. Her head bows down, and her shoulders quiver, but Altair's rage prevents him from caring.

He takes a deep breath and composes himself before continuing. "What were you even doing?"

Blushing sheepishly, she unclasps the font of her cloak slowly. Immediately, Altair whirls around, a breath hissing through his teeth. "What are you doing?!" he demands, still facing away from her.

"Ne, relax Altair-kun, I'm not doing anything inappropriate, just look." she says, and judging by the slight waver in her voice, she knew that he thought she was stripping.

Slowly turning around, Altair's eyebrows rise upwards in surprise, and his jaw (almost) drops open in surprise as he sees that under her cloak tucked snugly between her chest and shirt is a young wild cat. Before he can yell in protest, she frantically holds a finger to her lips. "Shhh, she's a sleep."

"She?!"

Orihime nods. "I found her with a wounded leg at the base of the cliff a week ago. I'm pretty sure that I saw her mother up along these cliffs. She's all better now, so I figured that I'd bring her up here."

Altair opens his mouth to lecture her again, when he abruptly snaps his mouth closed. "Do as you please. I'll hold no responsibility if it attacks you."

As he turns around, he senses Orihime bristle. "She has a name you know, it's Panthera."

"Panthera? Why would you name her-it that?"

"Because she has the same blue eyes as Jeagerjaques-san." Orihime explains, as the wild cat stirs in her arms, opening its maw wide in a yawn.

In an instant, a dagger appears in his hands, "Orihime. Set it down now." he growls, as the cat starts squirming and mewing.

"Kowai ka? Relax Altair-kun, she won't bite." Orihime reassures him, but she gently puts the cat down and goes to stand by Altair's shoulder.

The cat stretches and opens its maw and yawns. Blinking in the light, Altiar inhales sharper than usual, when he sees the cat's eyes are a shocking blue.

"Ohayo, Pantera-chan. O-geniki desu ka?" Orihime coos softly, crouching down as the cat slinks over to her, a soft growl rumbling through its throat. "Aw, she's…she's…" A frustrated expression appears on her face. "Eto…I don't remember what to word for gorogoro is." She blushes in embarrassment.

As this is going on, Panthera bounds away, as a deeper yowl echoes towards them. Orihime waves until the cat is out of sight. Turning back towards Altair, she hesitantly wraps her arms around his. "Gomen. Did I really worry you?" She asks.

"Tch. Course not. I was more worried about the trouble I'd get into if you broke your neck-ow! What was that for?!"

Orihime huffs and walks over to the cliff edge, turning around and disappears from view as she scales back down the cliff. Altair just mutters to himself and follows suit.

* * *

**Okay. Well, I hope you liked the chapter! Just to be clear, (and if you haven't already noticed) I'm taking some artistic liberties with this fic. Being honest, I'm more familiar with Ezio than anyone else, but since the two stars are Vega and Altair (Orihime and Hikoboshi in the Japanese legend) you can tell why I couldn't choose him as the main character.**

**So what did you think? Don't forget to leave a review!**

**-Moony**


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